Abstract
THE shear stress at which a metal passes beyond the elastic range and begins to yield is ill-defined. It is very small for highly perfect single crystals, and less for an annealed polycrystalline specimen than for one which has been hardened by cold work. It has often been pointed out that there is no elastic limit in a typical plastic metal, since the apparent stress at which the metal begins to yield depends upon the sensitivity of the means for detecting very small rates of flow. Nevertheless, the elastic limit and ultimate strength of metals can be stated in round figures; were it not so, the engineer would have no basis for his calculations.
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References
Wood, W. A., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 172, 231 (1939).
Taylor, G. I., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 145, 362 (1934).
Wood, W. A., and Smith, S. L., J. Inst. Met., 67, 315 (1941).
Smith, S. L., and Wood, W. A., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 178, 93 (1941).
Bragg, W. L., Proc. Phys. Soc., 52, 105 (1940).
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BRAGG, L. A Theory of the Strength of Metals. Nature 149, 511–513 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149511a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149511a0
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